Wrench



1968 KATSUSHI MORIWAKI 3,418,873

WRENCH Filed July 11, 1967 United States Patent 3,418,873 WRENCH Katsushi Moriwaki, No. 1023, Tadaoka-cho, Senbokugun, Osaka Prefecture, Japan Filed July 11, 1967, Ser. No. 652,482 4 Claims. (Cl. 81-99) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A wrench for use on both pipes and nuts and comprising a swingable jaw pivotally connected to the front portion of a frame member and freely swingable thereon, a main lever freely pivotally connected to the rear portion of the frame member, a movable jaw mounted on the rear and lower portion of the frame member and movable in a forward and backward direction, means coupled to the jaw and main lever to move them up and down simultaneously, a handle pivotally connected to the main lever and freely swingable thereon, and a linking lever extending between the handle and the frame member to turn the frame member relative to the main member when said handle is operated.

The present invention relates to a wrench which can be used for both pipes and nuts.

Since the conventional pipe wrench is made up for the purpose of turning pipes, such construction is good for grasping pipes. It is, however, very unsatisfactory for grasping nuts. Due to the above reason, both a pipe wrench and a spanner usually have to be provided in the working place.

With a conventional wrench, the wrench is fitted over a pipe and the pipe is chucked by turning the wrench through an angle, and the pipe starts to be turned. Therefore it is extremely inconvenient to use in a narrow space where the angle through which the wrench can be turned is limited, because its effective turning angle is small.

The object of the present invention is to provide a convenient combination wrench which serves both as a pipe Wrench and a spanner for turning nuts, and is to provide such a wrench having no play so that it is able to turn a pipe or a nut as soon as it catches the pipe or the nut.

According to the present invention, a swingable jaw and a movable jaw which chuck a pipe or a nut are moved close together and apart by operating a handle lever mounted on a main lever of the wrench. By this means tightening a pipe or a nut can easily be done. In turning a pipe or a nut, it can be turned as soon as it is caught with the wrench, while immediately after its turning, the wrench can be released therefrom.

The objects and advantages of the invention will be more fully understood from the following description of the preferred embodiment of the invention shown by way of example in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side view of a wrench of the invention and shows the wrench when it is not grasping a pipe or a nut.

FIGURE 2 is a side view of the wrench of the invention and shows the wrench grasping a nut.

FIGURE 3 is a plan view of the bottom of the wrench of the invention.

FIGURE 4 is a side view of the main part showing another embodiment of the wrench of the invention.

As shown in FIGURES 1 through 3, the wrench according to the present invention consists of a main lever 5 pivotally connected to a frame member 1, a swingable jaw 3, a movable jaw 11 mounted so as to be freely movable on the frame member 1, a ring nut 14 to move the movable jaw 11, a handle lever 7 pivotally connected Patented Dec. 31, 1968 to the main lever 5 and linking lever 8 connecting the handle 7 and the frame member 1.

The swingable jaw 3 is V-shaped and has an inside angle equal to 60 deg, the rear end portion thereof being loosely inserted into a front opening of the frame member 1 and pivotally connected thereto by shaft 2. The front end of the main handle 5 is inserted into a rear opening of the frame member 1 and pivotally connected thereto by a shaft 4. An engaging concave portion 15 at the rear end of the swingable jaw 3 and anengaging convex portion 16 at the front end of the main handle 5 are engageable'with each other in such manner that said swingable jaw 3 can swing up and down relative to said main handle 5. Then, a spring 9 is mounted in a tensioned state between the upper side of the rear portion of the swingable jaw 3 and the upper side of the front portion of the main handle 5.

The movable jaw 11 has thereon a front face, i.e. the binding face 19, inclined at 60 deg. to the undermost face 21 of the frame member 1. At the rear portion of the movable jaw 11, a threaded lever 12 having a flat section is integrally formed. Said threaded lever 12 is loosely inserted into 'a hole 10 extending in a forward and backward direction through a projecting portion 17 formed on the lower and rear portion of the frame member 1. Since the hole 10 has a rectangular cross section, the flat threaded lever 12 inserted therein can slide forwards and backwards, but never turns.

The binding faces 18, 19 opposed to each other on the swingable jaw 3 and the movable jaw'11 respectively are roughened. In a window 13 provided at the middle portion of said hole 10, said ring nut 14 is fitted so as to be freely rotatable, and said threaded lever 12 extends through the threaded hole of said nut 14 in threaded engagement therewith. On both sides of the upper portion of the movable jaw 11, is a projection edge 20 defining between them a groove in which is freely slidable the undermost face 21 of the frame member 1.

The bifurcated link 22 projecting upward from the front end of the handle lever 7 straddles the lower portion of the main handle 5 and is pivotally connected thereto by pin 6. And, the rear end of the linking lever 8 is pivotally connected to the front end of the handle lever 7 by a pin 23 and the front end of the linking lever 8 is pivotally connected to the rear side at the lower end of the projecting portion 17 of the frame member 1 by a pin 24.

The linking lever 8 has an opening 25 extending therethrough through which the lower portion of the rear end of the threaded lever 12 extends.

In use of the wrench according to the present invention, the distance between the swingable jaw 3 and the movable jaw 11 is initially suitably set by turning the ring nut 14.

To be suitably set means that when the handle lever 7 is free, the swingable jaw 3 is inclined upward as in FIGURE 1 owing to the spring 9, the distance between the opposing binding faces 18, 19 is such that a pipe or a nut to be turned is easily grasped and the clearance between the pipe or the nut and the binding faces 18, 19 is not so large.

In the above-mentioned state, by grasping the pipe or the nut and turning the handle lever 7 upwards, the link- 3 grasped strongly by the binding faces 18, 19. FIGURE 2 shows a tightly grasped nut 26.

In the condition shown in FIGURE 2, one side of the hexagonal nut located at the upper side comes into contact with the undermost face 21 of the frame member 1 and the inclined sides at both sides of the nut 26 are engaged by the binding faces 18, 19. Namely, three sides of the six sides of the hexagonal nut are strongly grasped, so that it is possible to fasten the hexagonal nut tightly and to loosen a tightly fastened hexagonal nut.

For a pipe 27 (shown in chain lines), the outer periphery is grasped at three points as shown in FIGURE 2. Then, in such state, by turning the main handle downwards, the engaging convex portion 16 located at the front end thereof pushes up the upper side of the engaging concave portion 15 at the rear end of the swingable jaw 3, so that the binding face 18 of the swingable jaw 3 is urged into contact with the surface of the pipe more strongly. Therefore, the pipe 27 is tightly grasped without slippage.

When the handle lever 7 is released after the pipe or the nut is fastened tightly as mentioned above, then, owing to the elasticity of the spring 9 the main handle 5 and the swingable jaw 3 return to the original position and the distance between the binding faces 18, 19 is increased, so that the wrench can be easily removed from the pipe or the nut.

The embodiment of the wrench shown in FIGURE 4 is different only in that the angle between the binding face 18 of the swingable jaw 3 and the binding face 19' of the movable jaw 11 differs from that of the binding faces 18, 19 of the wrench shown in FIGURES 1 through 3. Its construction and function are similar to those shown in FIGURES 1 through 3, so that the latter half of the main handle 5 and the linking lever 8 is cut off and omitted in the drawing, the identical numbers as in FIG URES 1 through 3 are used, and a detailed description of its construction and function is omitted.

In the embodiment of FIGURE 4, the swingable jaw 3, the inside angle of which is 90 deg, is L-shape and the binding face 19 of the movable jaw 11 is at right angles to the axial line of the threaded lever 12.

Moreover, the wrench can be provided with the swingable jaw 3 having the V-shape shown in FIGURES 1 through 3 and the movable jaw 11 having the binding face 19 perpendicular to the threaded lever 12 shown in FIGURE 4. However, the function and effect of the wrenches of such embodiments are about the same.

As mentioned above, the wrench according to the present invention has swingable jaw 3 swung by moving the main handle 5 mounted to be movable relative to the frame member 1 and the distance between the movable jaw and swingable jaw is varied. Therefore, engaging and disengaging from the pipe or the nut is very easily carried out, so that it is possible to raise working efficiency. And, since the wrench according to the present invention can be turned after grasping the pipe or the nut tightly, there is no idle clearance. Therefore, in working in a narrow place, even when the turning angle is restricted, tightening can be carried out.

The present invention is not restricted to the aforedescri'bed embodiments but can be modified by many other constructional modifications and variations.

I claim:

1. A wrench comprising a frame member, a swingable jaw pivotally connected to the front portion of the frame member so as to be freely swingable and having an engaging face thereof, a main handle pivotallyconnected to the rear portion of the frame member so as to be freely swingable, a movable jaw mounted on the rear and lower portion of the frame member and movable in a forward and backward direction and having an engaging face thereon opposed to the engaging face on said swingable jaw, the adjacent ends of said swingable jaw and said main handle being in bearing engagement, a handle lever pivotally connected to the main handle and freely swingable thereon, and a linking lever pivotally connecting said handle lever and the frame member and relatively turning the frame member and the main handle when said handle lever is pivoted.

2. A wrench as claimed in claim 1 in which the end of the swingable jaw is bent in a V-shape having about a inside angle, the engaging face of the movable jaw being inclined at about 60 to the direction of movement of the movable jaw and substantially parallel to the inclined engaging face of the swingable jaw.

3. A wrench as claimed in claim 1, in which the end of the swingable jaw is bent in an L-shape having about a inside angle, the engaging face of the movable jaw being at about 90 to the direction of movement of the movable jaw and substantially parallel to the engaging face of the swingable jaw.

4. A wrench as claimed in claim 1 in which the end of the swingable jaw is bent in a V-shape having about a 60 inside angle, the engaging face of the movable jaw being at about 90 to the direction of movement of the movable jaw.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 667,743 2/1901 Smythe 8l-130 1,060,391 4/1913 Wilson 8l102 X 2,495,699 1/1950 Clark 81-376 2,772,591 12/1956 Munroe 81367 X ANDREW R. IUHASZ, Primary Examiner.

G. WEIDENFELD, Assistant Examiner. 

